Chronic inflammation exerts pleiotropic effects in the aetiology and progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Glucosamine is widely used in many countries and may have anti-inflammatory properties. We aimed to prospectively evaluate the association of regular glucosamine use with incident COPD risk and explore whether such association could be modified by smoking in the UK Biobank cohort, which recruited more than half a million participants aged 40–69 years from across the UK between 2006 and 2010. Cox proportional hazards models with adjustment for potential confounding factors were used to calculate hazard ratios (HR) as well as 95 % CI for the risk of incident COPD. During a median follow-up of 8·96 years (interquartile range 8·29–9·53 years), 9016 new-onset events of COPD were documented. We found that the regular use of glucosamine was associated with a significantly lower risk of incident COPD with multivariable adjusted HR of 0·80 (95 % CI, 0·75, 0·85; P < 0·001). When subgroup analyses were performed by smoking status, the adjusted HR for the association of regular glucosamine use with incident COPD were 0·84 (0·73, 0·96), 0·84 (0·77, 0·92) and 0·71 (0·62, 0·80) among never smokers, former smokers and current smokers, respectively. No significant interaction was observed between glucosamine use and smoking status (P for interaction = 0·078). Incident COPD could be reduced by 14 % to 84 % through a combination of regular glucosamine use and smoking cessation.

Nicotine 3,5-dihydroxybenzoate dihydrate is a nicotine salt and can be used as compositions in tobacco products. X-ray powder diffraction data, unit-cell parameters, and space group for nicotine 3,5-dihydroxybenzoate, C10H15N2⋅C7H5O4⋅2H2O, are reported [a = 8.424(1) Å, b = 13.179(8) Å, c = 8.591(1) Å, α = 90°, β = 102.073(8)°, γ = 90°, unit-cell volume V = 932.765(3) Å3, Z = 2, ρcal = 1.256 g⋅cm−3, and space group P21] at room temperature. All measured lines were indexed and are consistent with the P21 space group.

Hypertension represents one of the most common pre-existing conditions and comorbidities in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. To explore whether hypertension serves as a risk factor for disease severity, a multi-centre, retrospective study was conducted in COVID-19 patients. A total of 498 consecutively hospitalised patients with lab-confirmed COVID-19 in China were enrolled in this cohort. Using logistic regression, we assessed the association between hypertension and the likelihood of severe illness with adjustment for confounders. We observed that more than 16% of the enrolled patients exhibited pre-existing hypertension on admission. More severe COVID-19 cases occurred in individuals with hypertension than those without hypertension (21% vs. 10%, P = 0.007). Hypertension associated with the increased risk of severe illness, which was not modified by other demographic factors, such as age, sex, hospital geological location and blood pressure levels on admission. More attention and treatment should be offered to patients with underlying hypertension, who usually are older, have more comorbidities and more susceptible to cardiac complications.

Findings for the roles of dairy products, Ca and vitamin D on ovarian cancer risk remain controversial. We aimed to assess these associations by using an updated meta-analysis. Five electronic databases (e.g. PubMed and Embase) were searched from inception to 24 December 2019. Pooled relative risks (RR) with 95 % CI were calculated. A total of twenty-nine case–control or cohort studies were included. For comparisons of the highest v. lowest intakes, higher whole milk intake was associated with increased ovarian cancer risk (RR 1·35; 95 % CI 1·15, 1·59), whereas decreased risks were observed for higher intakes of low-fat milk (RR 0·84; 95 % CI 0·73, 0·96), dietary Ca (RR 0·71; 95 % CI 0·60, 0·84) and dietary vitamin D (RR 0·80; 95 % CI 0·67, 0·95). Additionally, for every 100 g/d increment, increased ovarian cancer risks were found for total dairy products (RR 1·03; 95 % CI 1·01, 1·04) and for whole milk (RR 1·07; 95 % CI 1·03, 1·11); however, decreased risks were found for 100 g/d increased intakes of low-fat milk (RR 0·95; 95 % CI 0·91, 0·99), cheese (RR 0·87; 95 % CI 0·76, 0·98), dietary Ca (RR 0·96; 95 % CI 0·95, 0·98), total Ca (RR 0·98; 95 % CI 0·97, 0·99), dietary vitamin D (RR 0·92; 95 % CI 0·87, 0·97) and increased levels of circulating vitamin D (RR 0·84; 95 % CI 0·72, 0·97). These results show that whole milk intake might contribute to a higher ovarian cancer risk, whereas low-fat milk, dietary Ca and dietary vitamin D might reduce the risk.

Image stitching is important for the perception and manipulation of undersea robots. In spite of a well-developed technique, it is still challenging for undersea images because of their inevitable appearance ambiguity caused by the limited light in the undersea environment, and local disturbance caused by moving objects, ocean current, etc. To get a clean and stable background panorama in the undersea environment, this paper proposes an undersea image-stitching method by introducing graph-based registration and blending procedures. Specifically, in the registration procedure, matching the features in each undersea image pair is formulated and solved by graph matching, to incorporate the structural information between features. In the blending procedure, an energy function on the indirect graph Markov random field is proposed, which takes both image consistency and neighboring consistency into consideration. Coincidentally, both graph matching and energy minimization can be mathematically formulated by integer quadratic programming problems with different constraints; the recently proposed graduated nonconvexity and concavity procedure is used to optimize both problems. Experiments on both synthetic images and real-world undersea images witness the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In traditional antenna design, metal components are not placed in the central part of the antenna as they change the characteristics of near field radiation. However, we show that placing a metal ring in the centre of the strip lines, which connect the ends of folded high-frequency dipoles, does not damage the performance of the feed. Instead it significantly improves the voltage standing wave ratio of the feed whilst other performance indicators are not compromised. Thus, our findings show an excellent way of improving the wide band feed. Based on this foundation, a new circularly polarised feed for operation between 0.4 to 2 GHz is introduced for the Chinese Spectral Radioheliograph in this paper. The issue of a feed impedance matching network is investigated. By optimising the impedance matching, the performance of the feed is enhanced with respect to the previous realisations of the Eleven feed. The simulation and experimental results show that the gain of the feed is about 10 dBi, and the VSWR is less than 2:1. In addition, the feed has a low axial ratio, fixed phase centre location, and constant beam width in the range of 0.4 to 2 GHz.

The acquisition and tracking strategies of the BeiDou navigation satellite signals are affected by the modulation of Neumann-Hoffman code (NH code), which increases the complexity of receiver baseband signal processing. Based on the analysis of probability statistics of the NH code, a special sequence of incoming signals is proposed to evade the bit transitions caused by the NH code, and an NH Code Evasion and Stripping method (NCES) based on the NH-pre-modulated code is proposed. The NCES can be applied in both 20-bit NH code and 10-bit NH code. The fine acquisition eliminates the impact of NH code on the traditional tracking loop. These methods were verified with a BeiDou PC-based software-defined receiver using the actual sampled signals. Compared with other acquisition schemes which try to determine or ignore the NH code phase, the NCES needs fewer incoming signals and the actual runtime is greatly reduced without sacrificing much time to search in the secondary code dimension, and the success rate of acquisition is effectively improved. An extension of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based parallel code-phase search acquisition gives the NCES an advantage in engineering applications.

A congruent melting compound LiNaV2O6 has been synthesized by high-temperature solution reaction and it has been grown with sizes up to 11 × 6 × 2 mm3 by the top-seeded growth method for the first time. LiNaV2O6 crystallizes in the monoclinic system with space group C2/c, with a = 10.184(2) Å, b = 9.067(2) Å, c = 5.8324(11) Å, β = 108.965(14)°. UV–Vis–NIR diffuse reflectance spectrum of LiNaV2O6 shows that it has a wide transmittance range from 385 to 2500 nm. The ab initio calculations show that the birefringence of LiNaV2O6 is 0.136 at 589.3 nm. Therefore, LiNaV2O6 may be a new birefringent material. Based on the analysis of the relationship between crystal structure and linear optical properties, it is found that the large birefringence is attributed to the particular arrangement of V–O anionic groups.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of lutein and lycopene supplementation on carotid artery intima–media thickness (CAIMT) in subjects with subclinical atherosclerosis. A total of 144 subjects aged 45–68 years were recruited from local communities. All the subjects were randomly assigned to receive 20 mg lutein/d (n 48), 20 mg lutein/d+20 mg lycopene/d (n 48) or placebo (n 48) for 12 months. CAIMT was measured using Doppler ultrasonography at baseline and after 12 months, and serum lutein and lycopene concentrations were determined using HPLC. Serum lutein concentrations increased significantly from 0·34 to 1·96 μmol/l in the lutein group (P< 0·001) and from 0·35 to 1·66 μmol/l in the combination group (P< 0·001). Similarly, serum lycopene concentrations increased significantly from 0·18 to 0·71 μmol/l in the combination group at month 12 (P< 0·001), whereas no significant change was observed in the placebo group. The mean values of CAIMT decreased significantly by 0·035 mm (P= 0·042) and 0·073 mm (P< 0·001) in the lutein and combination groups at month 12, respectively. The change in CAIMT was inversely associated with the increase in serum lutein concentrations (P< 0·05) in both the active treatment groups and with that in serum lycopene concentrations (β = − 0·342, P= 0·031) in the combination group. Lutein and lycopene supplementation significantly increased the serum concentrations of lutein and lycopene with a decrease in CAIMT being associated with both concentrations. In addition, the combination of lutein and lycopene supplementation was more effective than lutein alone for protection against the development of CAIMT in Chinese subjects with subclinical atherosclerosis, and further studies are needed to confirm whether synergistic effects of lutein and lycopene exist.

To identify the disease-causing gene for a large multi-generational Chinese family affected by familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHCM), genome-wide screening was carried out in a Chinese family with FHCM using micro-satellite markers, and linkage analysis was performed using the MLINK program. The disease locus was mapped to 1q32 in this family. Screening for a mutation in the cardiac troponin T (cTnT) gene was performed by a PCR and sequencing was done with an ABI Prism 3700 sequencer. A novel C→G transition located in the ninth exon of the cTnT gene, leading to a predicted amino acid residue change from Ile to Met at codon 90, was identified in all individuals with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM). The results presented here strongly suggest that Ile90Met, a novel mutation in the cTnT gene, is causative agent of HCM in this family.

The localization of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and HSP70 mRNA in the heart, liver, lung, kidney, spleen, thymus and cloacal bursa in broilers that were heat stressed for 6 h was conducted using immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization techniques. Positive HSP70 mRNA signals were detected in the liver and lung, especially in the vessel walls. A weak presence was found in the myocardial cells. No significant signals were observed in spleen, thymus and cloacal bursa. HSP70 was observed in the vessel walls of all investigated broiler tissues. Localizations of HSP70 and HSP70 mRNA suggest that HSP70 could be correlated with cardiovascular function.

A new method of epitaxial growth of CoSi2 film on Si substrate by ternary solid state interaction is investigated. XRD, RBS and TEM show that single-crystalline CoSi2 can be formed on both Si (111) and (100) substrates by using Co/Ti/Si or TiN/Co/Ti/Si multilayer. The evolution of multilayer structure and its resistivity is studied and epitaxy mechanism is discussed. Experimental results indicate strong affinity between Co and Si. During the ternary interaction the epitaxial CoSi2 can be grown directly on Si and its growth may behave as a diffusion controlled process. The thickness of Ti layer and the annealing procedure have important effect on CoSi2 epitaxial growth.